Monday, June 18, 2012

Absolutely Positive

With ClubOrlov just over four years old, I am publishing a "best of" book of essays. These are 30 of the most popular articles chosen from the ones that have been published on ClubOrlov.

A lot has changed during this time; four years ago this book would have been largely about the future, but now it is largely about the present. In preparing the manuscript for publication, I haven't found anything that I would want to change or retract.

This book is only going to be available via Amazon Kindle; I have no plans to produce a paper version. While not quite as long-lasting as a bound volume printed on acid-free paper, it is somewhat less ephemeral than a blog, and a lot easier on the eyes. It is also much cheaper: $4 gets you your own copy, which you can keep forever and lend to friends and family as many times as you like, because it doesn't get lost and doesn't fray.

The book's title should be self-explanatory. I am absolutely positive that collapse is underway. I am also absolutely positive that with a bit of preparation and adaptation, some physical, some mental, a lot of us can pull through if we really try. Lastly, I am absolutely positive in my overall outlook and disposition, and hopeful that a fast but thorough collapse will leave enough of the planet in a non-toxic, non-radioactive, non-strip-mined, non-cratered state to allow for our continued existence as a species.

To promote this virtual book, I am going to go on a virtual book tour. If you would like to interview me for your radio show, publication or podcast, please contact me at my first name dot my last name at gmail dot com. Furthermore, if you wish to invite my non-virtual, physical self to appear in person and give a talk, and can pay for my travel from/to Boston, please let me know and we will try to work something out.

19 comments
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It seems to be an unwritten law of the publishing industry that the only authors who are allowed to publish books of essays are dead authors and Nobel prize winners. That leaves self-publishing, but that's risky and labor-intensive. Kindle offers a good way to self-publish without taking on a lot of risk, so I did what I could.

Sounds like a great compilation of your best essays. I plan to get it, although I do prefer hard covers when it comes to classics.

As for the Marcellus Shale Field, I work in a Kentucky law firm and I can tell you it is a giant scam. You are right about the reason: recapitalizing broke mining companies, but there is also another bubble you missed or probable were not told about.

It's producing another Land Rush, or real estate boom, if you will. It features every land owner in Eastern Kentucky and throughout the western side of Appalachia (along the Marcellus route) selling their land or mineral rights for dollars on the penny.

I find this a form of poetic justice.

You see, a hundred and ten years ago, New York bankers and assorted conmen came down to Eastern Kentucky and offered the mountain men sitting on their porches money for the "stuff" underneath their land. At first, the men just stared at them in disbelief, but when the bankers actually produced cash, they took it and signed the papers. After all, cash is cash, and how can you get stuff out from way underneath the land anyway? Only crops and timber had value. The year was about 1900, and the bankers got all the mineral rights and went back to New York.

Of course, we know what happened next. Some years later, huge bulldozers and rock trucks (Euks) started rolling onto people's land and sometimes right over their homes (fastest way to the mine sight -- read the contract your grandfather signed). Explosions rattled their huts and shacks at all hours of the day and night. Their children could no longer play in the driveway for fear of being crushed and, in general, their lives became a nightmare.

Now, mountain men ("hillbillies" to Northerners) are descending on bankers and offering them cut-rate deals on shale gas plays and the bankers and miners are buying them as fast as they can drive their companies into insolvency.

Ah yes, poetic justice: what comes around goes around. The "players" are now getting "played".

Sometimes you have to wait a century for it to happen, or even a millenium, but it happens.

Oh, and by the way, thanks to all "players" for the radon, and the salmon from the Pacific, the shrimp from the Gulf, and the seaweed from Japan. I'm thinking about dropping a hundred bucks on a 1950's era geiger counter and waving it over our dinner one night just for the fun of it.

Self publishing isn't as risky and intensive as you make it sound. If you can make an Ebook you can also produce a print-on-demand title which could also be from Amazon, for a marginal bit more money.

Print-on-demand means you don't have to buy a bunch of stock... only when someone orders a copy will it be printed. Of course, you could also get a few extra printed for yourself to give away, or whatever.

Just a thought. A paper title could go into a library. I work at one and that is how I found your first book.

I realize an e-book won't please everyone, but it happens to be a good option. I know about print-on-demand and it's only good if you own a print-on-demand company. The author gets a pittance. It is yet another expression of the common belief that "content grows on a magical content tree" so that everyone gets paid except the author. It is possible to make it worthwhile by ordering a run of books directly from a printer, then mailing them out one by one as orders come in. I did that with "Hold Your Applause" and it worked, but was too labor-intensive. If you don't want to buy a Kindle, download the free Kindle app for your computer and save shelf space. There is a staggeringly huge number of free e-books out there.

typing this on a kindle fire, turned off auto cap and autocomplete so grammar bolsheviks beware.my guess is commenters here are not a representative sample of the kindle audience, bc like me, they are likely to have read everything this blog has ever published, so would likely not buy any version, other than to share with those they hope to influence.kindle is the correct release version in my judgement.only good luck to you Dmitri.

re "Players getting played" in regard to bankers getting suckered in a hillbilly land rush...

We're talking, in this, about an 'industry' that thrives on making wholesale bad deals-- then dumping them on the next sucker before the smell gets too obvious-- or at least until the stinking stuff can be unloaded on the public. I wouldn't gloat too much over the poor bankers just yet; we may just be enjoying the preparation for the next bailout.

Alas! This may be true, although I wonder how many times the bankers can dump their bad "plays" on "taxpayers", who in the not too distant future may be clearly undefined.

To wit: I have noticed attempts to tax the super rich, and their reaction is to move to another country and apply for citizenship there. It seems the government is caught between stealing all pension funds or taxing the only people left who have real, sizable incomes.

The former may result in civil war or revolution. The latter will result in a mass defection to well known tax havens.

I think the government does understand one thing: if the soldiers do not get paid, they may not fight, and if they refuse to fight, the profits of the MIC will drop like a rock.

I'll get the thing, by hook or by crook. By the way, even Dmitri's comments section is smarter than most anything out there. He attracts good people. There's helpful stuff here and I'm weighing my options. In the good old days, you could walk in to a bookstore and just steal the damn thing, but nowadays, well, you kind'v want to get some compensation to the author I guess. Especially this one.

What if every time we type in a captcha thing correctly, we're creating life in a distant universe? Just saying, is all.

I got it and read it (after your first two books) and it doe s what it says on the tin.well pleased keep up the (very)good work because I agree with you and what you have said for 5yrs is ,amazingly,coming true...